"Alisa", Herb Taylor's early AS29  new
Photos (c) unknown, Text Herb Taylor 
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AS29 Alisa b/w

Herb Taylor in his Shoebox punt with his AS29 "Alisa", neatly folded up, in the background.  We're waiting on colour sailing photos.  This b/w from a (very) old CommonSense newsletter.  Alisa was one of the earliest AS29's built, along with Woodwind, the prototype, Matt Nash's boat and Lady Kate.  The northern spring 2001 was the 7th season for Herb, during which he sold her. 

Herb writes:

On the name:
When my spouse found out I was planning to name the vessel "Angharad", she said and did un-matey-type things... the vessel is now officially "Alisa" and bears Canadian licence number 32E44374..

On using her:
I still (March 2001)  keep her at Iroquois, Ontario, Canada on the Saint Lawrence Seaway - only about 10 miles downriver from Ogdensburg NY USA. While most of my use has been day-sailing, I have had a few overnight cruises among the Thousand Islands and up to the east end of Lake Ontario. Probably twice as much motoring as actually sailing. Right now I am looking forward to the 7th spring launching.

Why Herb sold her:
Every now and then I thought of putting her up for sale, because then I could get into building one of Phil's other designs, for example the W. Jochems or Champlain. Advancing years were another element in these thoughts - I came to sailing fairly late in life, and would much rather run than beat! My crew grew up and moved away, so that for example I had never yet flown the spinnaker.
 
...and a bit on motoring fuel economy:
Just a word about fuel economy when motoring. With a friend's 4-stroke high thrust Yamaha 9.9 hp outboard (like the motor Phil Bolger recommended for the Champlain power cruiser in MAIB Vol.14 No.7} I get over 6 hours cruising, at a speed of about 6.2 knots through the water, from 24 litres (6 US gallons?) of gasoline. These numbers aren't far off what Phil predicted for Champlain, and not bad I feel (with no other experience to compare) for a 30-foot boat. Do any of the other AS-29 owners have fuel consumption numbers to share? I plan to use my own vintage Merc 7.5 hp this coming season, to see how that goes. (I've used this motor in the past but only for short runs when I didn't track gas mileage.

As a comparison, Lady Kate uses a 9.9 Honda 4-stroke long shaft M100 (yes, an early- to ancient version) pushing a Michigan Wheel lugging prop. She works on 5 nautical miles/gallon. at 5 knots, sometimes more, sometimes less (we get fierce
winds to push against)  She usually motors with the mizzen up, which is a saver too.  In her 19 day cruise all over the Murray Lakes and up the Murray River a bit in March 2001, she used the grand total of 27L, about 7 US gallons (?).  There was much more sailing than motoring, though the river work and chasing paddlesteamers required a bit of fuel.... 
 

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